The World Ends in a Storm
by Eme
Summary: Duty drives a warrior foward. In the hopeless torrents of invasion Sailor Jupiter pushes past the pain of love lost and the limit of herself to meet her end in honor and dignity. But the Storm is all consuming and even the mighty must soon fall. . .


**Author's Notes:**

A HUGE Thank you to wingleona for such a fabulous critique of my work that helped oodles and oodles with spelling and grammar. You're a peach and I'm indebted to you ;)

Also there have been some inquires as to whether or not this is a one shot. Well as of right now I'm not sure, I have ideas of continuing it on to include the final moments of all the girls. However I'm not sure if I can or should endeavor to do so. The more feed back I get the more likely it is to happen (that's the honest truth)

Sailor Moon is copyright to Takeuchi Naoko 

This is merely a fan-girl's musings.

* * *

It had come to this. 

A mighty empire lies in ruins as the alabaster stones are washed red with the blood of its people.

At the top peak of Tranquility's Crest she stood like a beacon, searching, frantically searching. She had once been mighty. She had once been a Senshi of Strength and Protection. That had been before the betrayal, the destruction, and the failure.

Now eyes of desperation and tempered emerald scanned and scoured the masses of destruction and chaos below, seeking out a glimmer of silver, or a glimpse of gold, in them lie her only salvation.

She had once been a woman of great nobility and power, all which was shattered now. Leaving behind a bitter and raging shell. Electricity sparked off her bruised and bloody body. A bomb waiting to be lit. Remnants of a green skirted uniform hung from her body like the dead bark of a tree. She was unapproachable, inconsolable, and undeterred for her mission.

She had failed. They had been separated.

Grasping tighter on the gore drenched hand axes that she held the more blood dripped from her fingers, but such things were of no consequence any longer.

Her mind, and bond, were calling, calling and searching for her commander and Princess. But the air was too filled with Dark energy to make such a search possible. The white and golden lights in her mind's eyes jumped and flickered to and fro amidst and jagged sea of black intentions.

There had once been more lights, four actually. To the east a raging pillar of flame had consumed what was once the passionate light of red. To the north in the Palace's crumbling Archives now covered in frost was where the intelligent light of blue had gone out.

If she clung more to her sanity the Senshi of Jupiter would have been overcome by grief over her fallen comrades, but sanity was a flickering allusion in her tormented mind. Her sensible mind longed for the comfort and guidance of the trees, but there were no more trees left on the moon. All had fallen into ash, and the storm was coming.

She had only one thought to hold on to against the storm, only one thing, to find and protect her Princess, sanity could be dealt with later.

The scent of shadows, metal and blood wafted from behind her. Through her single-minded hunt it penetrated her senses and she was made aware.

He was there. There was no need to think his name.

Had it been days, weeks or mere hours since they had all learned of the betrayal of the Terrain Lords?

It mattered little; Death had come for her wearing the face of a man who had once shown her more than a warrior's life. Death had come and he wanted her blood.

She did not turn from the cliff, even as he spoke to her, the demon who she had given her heart blindly, she searched. She knew he would move in for the kill soon, it mattered little what words he said, the words of a traitor were the buzzing of flies. He soon grew weary of her dismissal of him, and made the first move, seeking to cleave her in two with his mighty battle-axe.

So the dance began, she faced the eyes of her attacker, her lover, her destruction; she turned from her quest and with an animalistic grace took her place opposite of him.

The tortured memories feeding her raging emotions, she dodged, and parried, blocked. For a moment she could almost forget that he had come to kill her and all that she stood for. That they were once again in the Training Hall early in the twilight hours testing each other's skill. The gouge to her upper thigh brought an end to such dangerous thoughts of sanity.

As they were interlocked in the maniacal dance of metal and flesh, the Jovian warrior did not notice the skies above her. Once clear and bleak over the Moon's landscapes, they now grew dark and threatening as the storm brewed and stirred. Her blows became charged, the dance becoming more frenzied; each one covered in blood and singed from the sparks she was setting off. It seemed hopeless, and inevitable, in the end, both would have to fall.

Then there was a terrible crack of thunder.

The Moon was bathed in a blinding cry of white light, the world had ended.

Or so it seemed to Jupiter. In mid-blow her heart had stopped with an unspeakable pain, all she could see was white, the demon man before her took advantage of her state and sent her to the ground with a mortal wound in her left side.

But this mattered little, her Princess was dead.

Emptiness, utter inconsolable emptiness. She stared up at the sky, feeling the blood leave her. For a moment the clouds above cleared and reason returned in all its ghastly reality. Tears once again fell from her eyes, and here she thought she had no more left to cry.

Serenity was dead. She had failed, they had all failed. There was no hope and the stars…the stars were mocking her. Or were they weeping? She could not tell, for once she wished for the power to speak with them. Did they foresee this all? Why hadn't they warned or tried to warn them? Were they all doomed from birth to have their hearts and souls ripped from them? These were questions that would never be answered.

He came into her vision; she had once welcomed the sight. As the tears rolled down her cheeks so did the last drops of her sanity, mingling with the blood, she gave into the storm.

The woman who got up to fight him was not the woman he had been fighting before. She was an electric fury, a valkyrie, a tempest. Every ounce of regret, anguish and hatred that coursed through her athletic build now swirled around her in a dangerous bloody hurricane of axes. Lightning struck without warning, without target, blinding seeking out to end the life of all that stood before its mistress.

It was unexpected; this second coming for what he thought was easy prey. If he had a soul left it would have wept at the sight of the beautifully broken goddess before him. He became the one dodging and blocking blows, and in an instant became lost in the deep wells of sorrow and pain that were her stone green eyes. It was the instant that killed him. Without mercy, without sensibility, she buried both hatchets of Jupiter deep within the chest of the Dark General.

He dropped to the ground under her unrelenting gaze. As the life drained out of him, she stood above. Tall and broken, bleeding and glistening, she was horrible, she was gorgeous.

She was the eye of the storm. All had gone quiet now in those few moments before he left this world, his soul struggled against the darkness for a moment of time before the inevitable. The evil chaos that gripped his eyes left and for a second they were clear blue once more.

"Athena…" Her name died on his lips, hoarse and bloody.

She looked down on him, and her eyes softened. A single tear slid down her marred cheek.

"Goodbye, my love." She whispered, a sound softer than the rustling of spring leaves.

Sailor Jupiter, bent and picked up Macha the legendary battle-axe of the King of the West, leaving her own two, as a mark for what she had done. Though she had failed her princess, in this she had done her duty, she had killed her heart and mind, but it was done and left for the universe and all the gods to see and take note. She limped and stumbled; dragging the large axe behind her, blood continuing to ooze down her side from the fatal wound. She walked away from the crest.

Athena, Princess of Jupiter, Senshi of Protection, Royal Guardian of the Princess of the Moon Kingdom, lover of Nephrite was no more.

Now there was only the storm.

* * *

I expect most people would be thrown off by the use of Athena as Makoto's Silver Millennium name as in many fics it is given to Ami, however I do have my reasons. 

First being that while Athena is undoubtedly the goddess of wisdom, she is also the goddess of war, heroes, and the domesticated arts. The later of her duties are the ones that tend to play more prominently in her mythology at least in my opinion. And it is especially the dichotomy of War and the Domestic Arts that links her to Makoto more so than Ami, once again at least in my mind.

The other factor that I personally think suits Makoto for the name is the fact that Athena was the favorite child of Zeus, her patron God.

So there you have it my reasons for Athena being Jupiter rather than Mercury. If you're curious the goddess name I have chosen for Mercury, which I think is more fitting, is Metis the personification and goddess of wisdom supposed to be Zeus true first wife whom he swallowed when she became pregnant, said to be the mother of Athena.

Hope that clears things up lol

So Please Read and Review!


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